AUTOMATIC DUCK is cheap as FREE!

 AUTOMATIC DUCK is cheap as FREE!

Plug-in that allows exports of sequences from Final Cut to Avid.  Check it out!

http://www.automaticduck.com/products/download/index.html


From the website:

As many of you know I used to be a professional Avid editor, often working between Media Composer and After Effects before the cool kids were doing it. By 1999 I had grown tired of the tedious timeline rebuilding process and started to investigate with Harry Plate (my Dad) how we could make a solution to import Avid OMF files into Adobe After Effects.

Harry and I started working diligently on what became Automatic Duck in late 2000 and by NAB 2001 we had our first product. Before we knew it we were celebrating 10 years of enabling integrated workflows.

Over the years we've enjoyed improving the interchange between Avid, Final Cut Pro, After Effects, Pro Tools, Smoke, Quantel and other AAF and OMF-friendly apps. We have enjoyed helping users improve their workflows and finish their productions more easily, and we've even enjoyed working with users to fix the occasional challenging bug and odd misbehavior. Not to mention at every trade show we had a great time meeting our many users from around the world.
We are very proud of the company we created and the products we lovingly crafted. But after 10 1/2 years the time has come for us to embark on new challenges and begin a new chapter in our lives. To that end Automatic Duck has partnered with Adobe Systems and will be working towards some excellent technology integration. I have joined Adobe as a full-time employee and Harry will be focusing on the technology integration as well as supporting other Automatic Duck partners.
Because we are so busy with these new projects we cannot provide the same level of support for our plug-ins that we used to, therefore we can't in good conscience charge money for them. But we don't want our popular tools to go unused if they are still useful to people. Therefore we have decided to make them available at no charge. Enjoy!
Thank you for the memories, we'll see you around.

SNATCH IT UP!  MIGHT SAVE YOUR ASS ONE DAY!

 

AVID MC 6 - CATCH THE MAGIC!

People (meaning me) are getting super excited about media composer 6!

I was able to play with it a bit last weekend at the Canon c300 unveiling.  Avid is really kicking ass right now, and I'm very excited about the new releases, and their real world impact on how fast I can work. The only hesitance on my end is that MC6 needs a 64 bit os, so it needs you to run on osx lion, which I've heard really sucks for final cut pro 7.

If you have MC5, you should upgrade to 5.5 now, as it's $150, and you get a free upgrade to six in two weeks.  Otherwise you're paying 250.  That's my coupon tip.

Anyway, this guy has a lot to say about it, as he was one of the beta testers for AVID.  Check it out.  Here's a great over view from little frog in high def, a great blog for all things editorial.

http://lfhd.net/2011/11/03/the-more-open-avid-media-composer-6-0/

One big thing that I need to point out is that Avid didn’t do any radical changes. Meaning that they didn’t re-arrange buttons on us. They didn’t change the interface as drastically as Apple did with FCP-X. They know, as they got constant feedback from us editors, that we rely heavily on muscle memory in order to edit quickly. Start moving things and things go haywire, and we get grumpy (note the Smart Tool). And if you don’t like where some, or ALL of the buttons are, you can open the Command Palette and put whatever you want, wherever you want. Avid has learned that make too many drastic changes, and you risk angering your base. And really, why fix what isn’t broken? The interface works. If you don’t think so…change it to your hearts delight. The tools are there.

 Alright, now let’s delve deeper into things, moving on to the 64-bit architecture that MC6 is built on. Now, what you won’t get with this is what you see with other 64-bit NLEs…like 8 layers of video with text and moving graphics and no need to render. Sorry, you won’t get that with this version of Media Composer. But what 64-bit does for this version of Media Composer is fix a lot of issues it had with previous versions. It enables the application to utilize more RAM, so that it can handle some of the routine tasks better. Like sluggish performance when you had multiple bins open, or bins with tons of footage. When scrolling on long, complex timelines. When keyframing or dealing with effects. 64-bit simply makes things faster…more responsive. Less waiting on our end. This means that I no longer press 15 keyboard combinations to complete a task and then 15-30 seconds later the Avid catches up with me. No, now it keeps pace with me. Scrolling on the timeline is quicker, zippier…no lag on long complex sequences. I can click on a clip, open the effects editor, make changes, and close the editor as quick as I can click. If you are new to Avid, this is something you won’t really notice. But if you are an old hand, you’ll see how 64-bit breathes new life into the application, making it able to work as fast as we can.

What 64-bit also opens the door for, hopefully, is background rendering and background transcoding. Those aren’t things available with this version of Media Composer. Those are just hopes that I have for future options. And I think they are possible.
I know what you are thinking…well, some of you anyway. Does 64-bit enhance Avid’s AMA? Meaning, can we now access footage via AMA in it’s native format, and edit that native format without loss of performance? Well, I did test this, and for many formats (like DVCPRO HD, XDCAM, AVCHD, ProRes and RED) direct AMA does work well. Far better than previous versions. So your edit times are greatly sped up because the need to transcode to Avid codecs isn’t always required. You can work natively with many professional formats, saving you hours of transcoding time. And even a few minutes of savings, multiplied by multiple edit bays, over a few days, adds up.

Really you should just READ HIS BLOG, but also check this out!

And remember when in July Avid announced that they’d be supporting third party hardware from AJA, Matrox, BlackMagic Design, MOTU and BlueFish? I tested the AJA Kona LHi with Media Composer 6…and the first time I captured video with it I did a happy dance. Yup, I got up and danced about in my bay/garage. Here I was, capturing video into my Avid using an AJA card…and it WORKED!

...When you choose the VIDEO TOOL, the AJA Control panel opens up. If you have used this card with FCP, the interface is exactly the same…all the tools you had before with the Kona cards, are available here. One feature I rely on a lot with the Kona is the great clean upconverts I get with it. Upconverting BetaSP and Digibeta to 1080i HD are commonplace in my world. And the card still does that beautifully. And I can capture as 1:1, or 2:1, or DNxHD, or ProRes HQ MXF.

This is a HUGE thing for Avid. This means that if you already own this hardware due to having a Final Cut Pro workstation…or several Final Cut Pro workstations, you can simply purchase Media Composer 6.0, install it, and run it on all the same hardware you did before. You heard me right…NO NEW HARDWARE. You can transition to Avid and still be able to capture tapes, output to tape, output to your broadcast and client monitors, without skipping a beat. So where Apple might have left you high and dry with the release of FCP-X, Avid throws you a line and lets you continue to work with the professional tools you need without major costs involved.

 Heck Yeah!!!

awesome iphone app for data rates.

If your a shooter or editor and need to know data rates, I hope you have an iphone, because this app is amazing.

You can find file sizes by camera or codec.  Learn a lot, quiz your friends.  

http://katabatic.tv/katadata/#

knowledge in action

It pays to know your tech.

Sometimes I feel the need to be a little apologetic when I get excited about film tech. Afraid my nerd my be showing sort of thing; but then I see something like this video. Taking the latest advancements in camera and post technology and putting them to good use. The knowledge is the gateway to stronger stories. Get excited about mastering the new.  

KNOW YOUR TECH!

And did you catch that they were shooting in 5K at 48 frames per second?  These guys are not fucking around.

NERD ALERT 64 BIT

AVID NERD ALERT!!!  NON-NERDS GET A LOOK AT THESE PICTURES!

I came across some info on 32 bit programs and 64 bit operating systems.  I've heard of many people running into trouble trying to get avid to run on 64 bit operating systems, as avid media composer 5.5 and below are 32 bit applications.
I personally have not run into this issue, and run avid 5.5 on my mac pro tower and macbook pro laptop, both which are 64 bit, and it runs just dandy.   At the TV network where I work our macs are set to 32 bit mode in order for avid to work.



Here's the link to some tech info I came across on the avid forums.  Pretty interesting reference:

If you're interested, here is more detail on 32 bit and 64 bit environments, as provided by our engineering department:
Will this 32 bit software run on my 64 bit operating system?
or
Will this 64 bit software run on my computer?
Here's a short tutorial which attempts to answer these questions and helps us understand the concepts of 64 bit and 32 bit hardware, operating system and applications.
32 bit systems have been part of the mainstream computing for more than a decade since the time of the 80386. Therefore, most of the software and operating system code written during this time has been 32 bit compatible.
32 bit systems can address up to 4 GB memory in one go. Some modern applications require more memory than this to complete their tasks. This and progress in chip fabrication technology led to the development of 64 bit processors for mainstream computing.
So here comes the problem, much of the software available today is still 32 bit, but the processors have migrated to 64 bit. The operating systems are slowly catching up. Eventually even the applications will catch up. But for now, we have to cope up with all combinations of 32 and 64 bits in hardware, operating system and applications.
To run a 64 bit application, you need support from all lower levels (64 bit OS and 64 bit processor).
To run a 64 bit OS, you need support from its lower level (a 64 bit processor).
A 32 bit OS will run on a 32 or 64 bit processor without any problems.
Similarly a 32 bit application will run on any combination of OS and processor (except a combination of 32 bit processor and 64 bit OS which is not possible). This is usually accomplished through emulation which is an operating system feature, part of all major operating systems.
Device drivers run in parallel to the operating system. Emulation is done at the operating system level, and is available to its higher layer: the application. Therefore, it is not possible to install a 32 bit device driver on a 64 bit operating system.
Answers to common questions:
Will a 64 bit CPU run a standard (32-bit) program on a 64-bit version of an OS?
Yes it will. 64 bit systems are backward compatible with the 32 bit counterparts.
Will a 64-bit OS run a standard application on a 64 bit processor?
Again, it will. This is because of backward compatibility.

Can I run W2K and WXP on an 64 bit CPU, and use old software?
Yes, a 32 bit OS (W2K and WXP) will run on a 64 bit processor. Also, you should be able to run "old software" on a 64 bit OS.
However, before I close, let me also quote that many times, a 64 bit software will contain bits of 32 bit code. Similarly 32 bit software (usually very old ones) can have some code in 16 bit. Please be aware that 16 bit code will NOT run on 64 bit OS. This is one reason behind some 32 bit programs not working on 64 bit OSes.
Larry Rubin Senior Editor The Pentagon Channel

Here's the link: 

http://community.avid.com/forums/t/96906.aspx?PageIndex=2

Ok back to whatever...